"Lalas has dished it out for a long time. If he can’t take it, well … what’s the word we’re looking for? Snowflake? Yes, I think that’s it."
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Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t, but it is true that I took a swipe or fired off a gripe about Fox’s decision to include perma-smug Alexi Lalas on its main studio program in every story I’ve written about the World Cup so far.
Well, I’m here to offer sort of a mea culpa for that now. Lalas’s stint — which may be over, or at least abbreviated — has been highly entertaining, for one reason that has nothing to do with his analysis.
His more accomplished fellow analysts — France legend Thierry Henry and comically blunt Swedish icon Zlatan Ibrahimović — have been just as annoyed with Lalas’s hot takes, how he basks in agitating people, and his delight in sucking the air out of the room.
Best of all, they do not hide it.
The most obvious example occurred on Tuesday, following France’s victory over Senegal. During the match, in-game analyst Landon Donovan said France had been “sluggish” in the first half.
Lalas took it a step further in the postgame, calling France “arrogant.” That brought a rebuttal from Ibrahimović that cut down Lalas and left Henry staring straight ahead, wide-eyed. (Would have loved to have heard his internal monologue at that moment.)
“It’s not arrogance,” said Ibrahimović. “It’s confidence. Ignorant people will say it’s arrogance. Intelligent people will say it’s confidence.”
Back to you, Rebecca.
Actually, perhaps that aforementioned reference to how Ibrahimović and Henry don’t hide their disdain for Lalas should be amended to did not hide it.
When Fox’s “World Cup Today” studio show came on in advance of the United States men’s national team’s match Friday with Australia, Henry, Ibrahimović, and Rebecca Lowe were on set.
Lalas was not.
Said Lowe, a truly superb host who has been adept at keeping a poker face even when Lalas launched into his peak condescension mode, “Chaps, Alexi left us,” then added, “Alexi will be back. Alexi will be back.”
“Your plan worked,” said Henry, smiling.
“Don’t you bring me into this,” she said. “No chance.”
Then Ibrahimović, whose own self-regard is so massive that it’s amusing, got to the heart of the matter:
“America,” he said, “you’re welcome.”
Lalas still was part of the broadcast, just from a safe distance. He was on-site at the match in Seattle, along with fellow former Revolution star Clint Dempsey and former US women’s national team stalwart Carli Lloyd.
No specifics were offered on if or when Lalas might return to the studio show. It’s certainly not necessary. Henry is a genuinely outstanding analyst who chooses the candid truth over placating egos.
That was best evidenced Wednesday when he was blunt in his annoyance with Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to try to score a goal himself rather than make the obvious correct play during a 1-1 tie with Congo.
“The team needs to score, not you need to score,” Henry said.
With Lowe at the helm, Henry providing astute analysis, and Ibrahimović there, whether he knows it or not, as cocky comic relief, Fox actually has an excellent studio program.
It does not need Lalas. The players they have in the studio have far greater credentials and are better companions for viewers. But I imagine he will be back on set, though, perhaps even by the time you read this.
With the World Cup in the United States, it’s understandable why an American would be part of the lead studio team. I think it’s fair to say Fox favors a certain type of American in that role. Lalas, who makes his political affiliations clear and probably owns an ugly red ballcap or two, fits the suit.
Contrary to my feelings before and at the start of the World Cup, I won’t mind if he comes back, presuming a return isn’t accompanied by a management mandate for Henry and Ibrahimović to be nicer to him.
Lalas has dished it out for a long time. If he can’t take it, well … what’s the word we’re looking for? Snowflake? Yes, I think that’s it.
Murray on Knicks’ winning call
In 2024, Tyler Murray was in his third season of calling Worcester Red Sox games while filling in occasionally on WEEI’s Red Sox radio broadcasts. He beat out hundreds of candidates to become the Knicks’ radio voice beginning in the 2024-25 season, and in his second season had the honor of calling the team’s championship run, which culminated last Saturday with New York’s clinching Game 5 victory.
Heck of an ascent, and a well-deserved one, for the Boston University grad.
Numbers rate a closer look
A note of context: Whenever you read an item about record television ratings for a sporting event — whether it’s the World Cup, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Final, or anything else drawing a huge audience — keep in mind that the methodology has changed in ways that are actually measuring more people, which leads to bigger viewership numbers.
Just a hunch, but Nielsen Media’s overdue decision in September 2020 to include out-of-home viewership in such places as bars probably has a decent effect on those numbers, you know?
